This is the story of Eilidh, Ben, Tom and Tom’s overland journey from Melbourne, Australia to Appin, Scotland. We drove 56,650km over 1,080.5 hours, crossed 43 countries and took 339 days, and we want to share our experience with you. Find us on facebook at facebook.com/4guysinacar .

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Saturday, 26 July 2014

2 Guys in North Korea: Part 2

If you've read 2
Guys in North Korea: Part 1
you'll know that we absolutely loved our little jaunt to this largely
unknown and feared country. What I didn't delve into though was one
of the most important factors that made it so successful. I don't
want to take away from the country and the experience of being there
in itself, but I have to give a huge amount of credit for just how
amazing our trip was to Young Pioneer Tours (YPT).

As
always we did a lot of research before we went to North Korea, and it
became clear to us pretty quickly that there were two tour companies
to choose from. Before going any further I should explain: it is a
requirement of the North Korean government that foreigners be booked
onto an organised tour which is accompanied by a Korean guide
employed by the KITC (Korean International Travel Company). The KITC
is the only travel company in North Korea, and is owned and run by
the government. No matter which company you book your tour through,
it's the KITC that will provide your Korean guide, but you won't be
communicating directly with them until you get there. So the
non-Korean company that you book your tour with is sort of like a
compulsory middle man. Well that's what we assumed. We realised
though that while that's the minimum, YPT takes it much much further
than that, and that's what makes them so incredible.

There are umpteen companies claiming to run tours in North Korea,
some of which are real, some of which aren't. However, the feature
that sets aside the two leading organisations is that, apart from
just a general level of knowledge, experience, care, and
professionalism, they send their own guides into North Korea with
their tours. A lot of the issues we hear about where an individual
has stepped out of line and been arrested/detained
was either because of a simple misunderstanding, the foreigner not
really understanding what was and wasn't acceptable, or a
Korean getting the wrong end of the stick and acting rashly. This is
much less likely to happen if there's a western guide there looking
after the group who knows and understands the Korean cultures,
traditions and laws, and has the trust of many locals. And in fact,
YPT has never had any issues like these on their tours.

So
there were two companies for us to choose from – “how did we
choose between them then?” you might be asking. Well it's very
simple - price. On surface level, according to the basic information
on their websites and the majority of reviews, they offer mostly the
same stuff. YPT though was offering a 9 day tour for 1245, as opposed
to the best option for us from the other guys being a 5 day tour for
1490. Honestly we hummed and hawed a lot because we knew much more
about the other company as they'd been around for a lot longer, but
we just couldn't get past the price difference. So after much
deliberation we went with YPT, and I can't possibly explain just what
a fantastic decision that was to make.

From
the moment we met Troy, Shan, Rowan, Chris and Julian at the pre-tour
meeting in Beijing, we were thrilled. They had everything completely
under control and were incredibly helpful with all the little bits
and pieces that people still had to organise, including a lot of
pretty complicated logistical arrangements between the four back to
back tours that we were doing. We got a detailed and relevant brief
about the dos and don'ts and some specifics of what we'd be upto, and
best of all – they were all soooo cool! And from then on we fell
more and more in love with YPT. The more we found out, the more we
liked.

Troy
was our main guide for the longest part of our time there, but we
also had Rowan, Chris and Julian for various parts, and it was so
fantastic to have guides who genuinely wanted each member of their
tour to have the best possible time that they could, going completely
out of their way at every turn to ensure that each of us was getting
as much from the tour as possible, including but not limited to
always being the first to buy a round of beers.

This
is a company run and staffed by people who have a deep interest in
North Korea and North Koreans, and a passion for showing it to the
world in a light that we usually don't see it in. Something we
couldn't help but notice was the relationships between our western
guides and the locals (guides, staff at the hotels and restaurants,
policemen, border guards, and other locals we met along the way) –
these guys had clearly done their time, proven themselves, and come
out the other side with the utmost respect from some of Pyongyang's
most elite. Not only are these well established relationships an
admirable achievement, but this really makes all the difference in
exceeding the expectations of their customers and providing
outstanding tours. To have that level of trust from the locals is
invaluable.

I
try not to throw around my praise too lightly, but I must say: hats
off to Young Pioneer Tours. And thanks for a fantastic time!

Contact us

If anyone would like to get in touch with us about anything at all - to ask about our trip, use us as a resource if you're planning your own, share your own experiences, find out how we stay so good looking, invite us out for a beer, or anything else, we'd love to hear from you.